Introduction
How cloud migration and managed IT services have supported growth at The Property Centre
The Client
The Property Centre is an award-winning estate agent based in the South West of England. The agency offers a full range of sales and letting services and employs over 100 staff across its nine branches and head office. The Property Centre has been a Emerge Digital technology partner for over 10 years. Throughout this time, we’ve worked as an outsourced IT department, managing everything from IT support to cloud telephony and cloud infrastructure to internet connectivity. Three years ago, we presented a documented technology strategy to The Property Centre’s board of directors outlining a new IT and communications framework that would transform the way the business used technology.
The Challenge
One of the key challenges The Property Centre faced was migrating to cloud-based services. As they’d grown in size, they needed a more robust telephony system as well as cost-effective fibre solutions in each of their branches. In addition to this, they needed to work towards a managed office network that would connect their technology and help boost efficiency across the business.
The Solution
Our solution was made up of several strands and took place over the course of 24 months. We worked specifically on cloud migration, connectivity, communications and general IT support.
- Cloud Migration Services
Cloud migration lay at the heart of our strategy. Over the course of 24 months, we moved all business applications, IP telephony services and server infrastructure into the cloud. We also set up a managed office network, so all services were fully joined up.
- Connectivity
We implemented reliable fibre leased line solutions into all of the business’s branches and ensured this was done at the most cost-effective price. All branches now enjoy a dedicated line connecting them to the internet at superfast speeds.
- Communications
Making phone calls is an essential part of The Property Centre’s work, so we introduced a robust, flexible and scalable cloud telephony system that the company could fully rely on.
- Support
Last, but by no means least, we created a simple cost-per-employee IT and telecoms package, including 24/7 support across all branches. If ever an issue arises, whether that’s in work time or at the weekend, we’re on hand to help. Our engineers also make monthly on-site visits to maintain the technology – and answer any questions from the teams.
"Moving to cloud-based services has improved our efficiency and effectiveness. And because Emerge Digital handles all of our IT services, we have more time to spend growing our business."
Leon Broady, Director - The Property Centre
The Outcome
We’re delighted that The Property Centre has seen a wide range of benefits from our work. The new technology and services have boosted employee productivity, increased efficiency and created a more joined-up feel across all branches. As we fully manage these services, the teams can also concentrate fully on what matters most: supporting their customers and driving growth. What’s more, our simple cost-per-employee model has enabled the teams to budget more effectively for business expansion. The positive effects of this were felt most recently when the centre extended their offering by opening up two new branches.
Introduction
In this day and age, technology plays an integral role for businesses attempting to reach their goals. While the dependence on technology varies for each company, the situation is simple: each business needs to ensure their IT system is functioning at its best.
If you or your employees are competent with computers, you will have the know-how to complete standard IT-related tasks. This can include everything from managing updates to installing antivirus software.
Yet if you want your IT to be at the top of its game, you will typically have to search for outside help supplied by an expert provider. When doing this, there are two common choices: managed services and traditional IT support.
What’s the difference between the two? Which one will work best for your business? Read on for the answer to these questions – and more
Traditional IT support
Traditional IT support is commonly referred to as “break-fix” support. This is due to the reactive nature of this support channel.
When working with a traditional IT support provider, you’re going to gain access to a team of IT experts who are on standby to solve any problems you come across. When you do have an issue that needs resolving, you notify the provider’s help desk and wait for the fix to be done.
When it comes to traditional IT support, this can be done in-house. Although if you want a professional IT engineer to do the work, hiring them could be especially expensive. This is why outsourcing is recommended for small-to-medium businesses. Payments for outsourced IT support are usually either done by purchasing a block of operational hours or paying a one-off annual subscription fee.
Managed services
Compared to the previous option, managed services take on a much different form. This starts with managed services being proactive rather than reactive. What does this mean exactly? Essentially, it highlights how your third-party provider is “always-on” and monitoring the situation. Instead of waiting for an aspect of your IT system to break – like with traditional IT support – the MS team is continuously doing work in the background.
Round-the-clock monitoring assists with preventing IT issues from causing your business problems. As a result, your business won’t suddenly go offline – it will continue to run 24/7. Along with this, you also get to benefit from the expertise provided by managed services providers. Based on our features, you can enjoy everything from the latest antivirus software to a sophisticated backup and recovery system. Via the help desk, experts are also available at all times to supply support when needed.
Another advantage of managed services is the payment structure. You typically pay a fixed monthly rate, which means there are no hidden expenses.
In summary
Traditional IT support is a suitable choice for businesses that don’t rely too much on technological developments. They can step in and deliver help when needed. If you operate a sophisticated IT system, however, managed services are essentially mandatory. This will keep your business online at all times, protect from malicious threats, and refine your entire IT system.
Introduction
Every business owner is always searching for ways to reduce their expenditure. A tight budget doesn’t only restrict growth plans, but it can also cause a company to fall into trouble if they hit a rough financial patch.
At the same time, most businesses will also realise a reliable IT system, one that doesn’t compromise on features, is essential. It ensures they can remain competitive, efficient, and productive. Yet maintaining this system is far from straightforward – this is why strong IT support is crucial.
However, are you spending too much on your IT support? Maybe you’re not spending enough? To figure out the central question posed by this article, let’s take a closer look at the two leading IT support methods available for a small to mid-size business.
In-house support
The first option is to hire an IT support team to work in-house for your business. This is an attractive scenario for two main reasons. First of all, you can receive instant support and know your IT system is running smoothly. There’s also the level of flexibility it affords. Along with IT-related tasks, you can also get them to help out with project work and support other areas of your business.
There are significant drawbacks, however. For example, your business can be left vulnerable if your IT support engineer is on holiday or absent due to illness. Plus, with the way IT is ever-evolving, even experienced IT engineers can struggle to stay up-to-date with every area of IT.
Most importantly, in this case, is the expensive nature of employing a team in-house. With a set wage, pension, potential bonuses, etc. for each employee, hiring an IT team can be exceptionally pricey for even a mid-sized business.
Outsource the work
Outsourcing to a specialist IT provider makes a lot of sense for both small and large businesses. A small company, for instance, can receive ad hoc support. What this means is that they only pay for IT support when needed, which is particularly cost-effective as there’s no need to commit to a set contract. You also have the ability to scale up and down when required effortlessly.
If you have a complex IT system to manage, unlimited support is also available. Your business is provided with dedicated assistance at all times. No holidays or unsociable hours get in the way. Along with 24/7 support, you also benefit from IT experts and their specialist services – the type you’d typically have to splash a considerable amount of money on.
Perhaps most importantly is the expert skillset you receive right from the start with outsourcing. It’s a different story when trying to assemble an in-house IT team with all the skills you require. You need an IT director to plot a strategy, an IT manager for supervising networks, and an IT engineer ready to assist on the help desk. Attempting to find this level of expertise from a local talent pool is difficult.
Just remember the old saying, “You get what you pay for.” This is undoubtedly true when outsourcing. If you simply base your IT support on picking the cheapest option, this could come back to haunt you later on. This is why you should always place your trust – and money – into a respected and experienced provider like Emerge Digital.
Introduction
Is COVID-19 going to change the way we work forever? It’s hard to believe how different life in the UK was only three months ago. With the spread of COVID-19 came the restrictions on our lives that we have all become used to, but which previously would have barley been imaginable.
As restrictions begin to ease across Europe, we’re beginning to imagine a time when things will be back to how they used to be, although that maybe many months away. Even when we can start to put COVID-19 behind us, could the impact on businesses be about to spur some of the biggest changes we have ever seen to the way some of us work.
Although there are certainly many industries that are unable to work remotely, swathes of the working population are no longer taking the long commute to the office every day, and are instead finding a quiet (or not so quiet) corner of their home to work from.
Rather than taking months or years to adopt new technologies and new ways of working, this happened in a just a few days as teams had to communicate and collaborate in different ways.
Even with the enforced lockdown and these massive changes coming in over such a short period of time, businesses are seeing minimal reduction in productivity. In fact, many are starting to see productivity rising as they learn how to work and manage teams in this new world.
Large enterprises such as Google, Twitter and BT are saying they are going to give many staff the option of whether they ever come back to work in the office.
I have had multiple conversations over the last month with large and small businesses that are questioning whether they should downsize their office or get rid of it completely. With most businesses already very cost conscious, their greatest expense after staff is their office space; perhaps not for much longer.
Technology was already beginning to enable businesses to be more flexible in how they work. Most of our customers at First Solution were able to switch to remote working quickly, as they already made use of cloud technologies and hosted telephony.
Those that are already starting to use these technologies will continue to build on them to ensure teams can work and communicate effectively and securely. Businesses that were not so far along the path and have struggled to adapt will want to be prepared for any similar disruption in the future. There will also be the considerable incentives of reducing the costs associated with office space.
It is also a time where the benefits of an improved work/life balance, avoiding a long commute and reducing a person’s carbon footprint are increasingly important factors when choosing a job for many people.
The technology is readily available, and the right technology partner could help a business transform in a matter of weeks.
Will offices disappear completely? I don’t think so. For many people, the workplace is an important part of their social lives and currently, technology can’t quite replace the experience of being face to face with people. What we may see is the office no longer being the destination to come and sit in front of a computer, but perhaps a space more focused on teams coming together for collaborative working or an experience centre for customers to visit.
I can certainly see a reduction in travelling across the country or globally for meetings with colleagues, customers or partners as people get used to doing business over technology platforms such as Microsoft Teams. Again, technology can not replace the experience of meeting people face to face but perhaps, these face to face meetings can be saved for the more enjoyable parts of doing business such as a visit to the local pub to enjoy a pint together with memories of COVID-19 behind us.
Introduction
Find out how Gloucester Rugby are transforming their business operations with the use of Microsoft’s Modern Workplace.
The Client
One of the most established, well known rugby clubs in the world, Gloucester Rugby are a professional sporting organisation that play in England’s top division of rugby, as well as in the top European rugby competition.
Gloucester Rugby have recently gone through a period of transformation, with the aim of delivering a world class experience to its fans and its partners. Recent initiatives have included ongoing investment in the rugby squad and coaching setup, a club rebrand, a dedicated conferencing and events team, a new hybrid rugby pitch and a new fan experience, including ultra-fast stadium Wi-Fi and a Club App.
To help deliver on this transformation, Gloucester Rugby embarked on a procurement process to replace their existing technology provider. After a detailed tender process, Gloucester Rugby chose Emerge Digital as their core technology provider.
The Challenge
Gloucester Rugby is one of the most high-profile businesses in Gloucestershire and very much the hub of the community. This profile means they need to be very strict in terms of their cyber security posture. Their core customers are members of the public, meaning they need to be very careful in the management and security of personal data. The business also has a requirement for strict adherence to PCI and GDPR regulation.
A critical part of the operation is home matchdays, which often involve over 15,000 spectators at their ground, Kingsholm stadium, and live coverage on TV. These events usually take place at weekends or evenings. It is vitally important that IT operations perform during these matchdays. Gloucester Rugby also need to manage their core business operations at Kingsholm, their stadium, and their player training facility at Hartpury University.
A new management team was put in place in Autumn 2019. The team developed a highly ambitious strategy to be successful both on and off the field. The team identified that embracing new technology was key to supporting their strategy and would be essential in increasing operational efficiency and staff productivity
The Service
- A 36-month strategy was agreed to take Gloucester Rugby into the Cloud and develop a ‘Modern Workplace’ based on Office 365 and Microsoft best practice, whist ensuring that the businesses critical data was kept secure.
- Emerge Digital delivered their state-of-the-art Managed IT Support Service to enable operational excellence, whilst simultaneously raising defences and lowering costs. This included a service desk to help users with issues, a 24/7 network operations centre to manage core infrastructure, and scheduled onsite engineers for both site visits and cover for matchdays.
- Business continuity and disaster recovery processes were implemented, and a number of next generation cyber security services we rolled out within the business.
"Emerge Digital have designed and implemented a solution that improves our day to day operations now and has given us a platform that we can build upon for the future."
Alex Brown, Commercial Director - Gloucester Rugby
The Outcome
Emerge Digital has delivered against Gloucester Rugby’s high expectations, showing its ability to be commercially and operationally adaptive to Gloucester Rugby’s needs. Gloucester Rugby’s move to Office 365 has made the business more agile in their IT Operations, whilst improving the communication and collaboration amongst their staff. The implementation of a Technology Strategy has allowed management to make informed decisions around technology and provides a common framework and language to help communicate to key stakeholders.
Alex Brown, Commercial Director ‘We are a unique business in many respects and have a unique set of IT requirements. Emerge Digital have designed and implemented a solution that improves our day to day operations now and has given us a platform that we can build upon for the future. We are a sporting institution that has a lot of ambition, both on and off the field. Emerge Digital are the right technology partner to help us achieve our aspirations’
